Many consumers are accustomed to printing documents at home or work to a printer that is nearby their computer. However, with the advent of mobile computing and the explosion of digital information, more consumers are obtaining document services from a local document services provider. These services may be obtained directly in person or are increasingly being met via the internet through a retail web site geared to provide printing and document services. A consumer can make a document service request and expect to receive the requested documents near their present location, whether at home or not. Moreover, even businesses may obtain larger volume document services through a web site or another electronic venue with the documents being provided by the service provider and delivered to the business or location at which an employee of the business is located.
To meet this growing demand, some large entities in the printing market may contract with document service providers to secure their services for large volumes of printing or other document services.
Unfortunately, the typical contracts that govern the relationship between these large entities and the document service providers are not flexible enough to accommodate the fast pace and variability of demand in the overall printing market. For example, if the contract specifies an annual volume based on non-peak demand, the contracted volume will be inadequate for periodic peak demands. On the other hand, if the contract specifies an annual volume based on peak demand, the contracted volume will be too high for non-peak demand periods. Finally, in the absence of such contracts, there may be insufficient stability in the printing market to insure quality service over a longer time frame. Accordingly, the conventional models to acquire services from multiple print service providers are inadequate to serve current printing demands and models.